Using Cisco Emergency Responder

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Cisco Emergency Responder (Cisco ER) is an emergency communication system that helps you respond to a crisis quickly and efficiently. When someone in your telephone network places an emergency call, Cisco ER automatically notifies you and routes the call to the local public safety answering point (PSAP) operator. Using the extension that Cisco ER provides, you can look up the location of the caller through the Cisco ER User web interface. Once you know the location of the caller, you can go to the site of the emergency, send help, or otherwise complete your company’s emergency response policy requirements.

Cisco ER also maintains a record of emergency calls your system receives so that you can access this information later.

To exit the Cisco ER User web interface from any page, choose the Logout link at the top of the screen.

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Note:

For help about how to use a feature on any Cisco ER User web pages, choose Help > Help for this Screen.

Understanding What Happens When Someone Places an Emergency Call

This section provides a brief overview of what happens when someone places an emergency call:

Someone places an emergency call

Cisco ER receives the call and forwards it to the public safety answering point (PSAP) for your area.

At the same time, Cisco ER calls you on your telephone, alerts you that an emergency call was placed, and provides you with the extension of the caller. Depending on how your administrator sets up your system, you might also receive an e-mail message or an e-mail page containing the caller’s extension, the Emergency Response Location (ERL) name, and the time of the emergency call.

Information about the emergency call also appears on the Emergency Call Alert page. This information includes the time and date of the emergency call, the extension of the caller, the ERL name, and the phone location. Additional details about the caller’s location, such as the complete physical address for the ERL and the port name, are displayed when you click on a call record. (The port name can be configured on the switch for a particular port.)

Note:

Cisco ER displays the port name only for automatically tracked phones.

When you determine the location of the caller, you can respond to the call according to your company’s emergency response policy.

As soon as the caller places the emergency call, Cisco ER refreshes the Emergency Call Alert page. If Cisco ER cannot perform the real-time update for some reason (for example, because you are temporarily not connected to the server), the Emergency Call Alert page will be refreshed in 30 seconds.

Note:

Cisco ER only provides you with the extension of the caller; you cannot listen to the actual emergency call.

Acknowledging an Emergency Call

To acknowledge an emergency call means that:

You are taking responsibility to act according to your company’s emergency response policy on behalf of that call.

You understand that your policy might require you to go to the physical location of the caller, or it might require that you monitor the emergency situation by telephone.

You understand that when you acknowledge a call, Cisco ER keeps an acknowledged call for 24 hours in the system. After 24 hours, Cisco ER removes that call from the Emergency Call Alert page list and that the entry disappears from your Emergency Call Alert page and the Emergency Call Alert page of every onsite alert person in your system.

Note:

Unacknowledged calls are indicated by a red color link. Acknowledged calls are indicated by a black color link.

Note:

All security personnel (onsite alert personnel) who have access to the Cisco ER User web interface see the same emergency calls on the Emergency Call Alert page. When you acknowledge a call, Cisco ER removes the call from the list.

Even though the call record is removed from the list on the Emergency Call Alert page, Cisco ER saves the information about the call. You can see information about an emergency call after it is acknowledged by viewing the call history. (For information about how to view the call history, see the Viewing a History of Emergency Calls section.) You can also see detailed information about that caller’s location by looking up the phone extension. (For information on viewing details about a caller’s location, see the Obtaining More Information About an Emergency Call section.)

Before You Begin

This procedure assumes that you are logged in to Cisco ER and that the Emergency Call Alert page is displayed.

To display the Emergency Call Alert page from any page on the Cisco ER User website, choose Web Alert.

To acknowledge an emergency call and remove the emergency call from the list, follow these steps:

Procedure

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Step 1 On the Emergency Call Alert page, click ACKNOWLEDGE for the emergency call you want to acknowledge.

A message appears and prompts you to confirm your acknowledgement.

Step 2 Click OK.

Cisco ER refreshes the Emergency Call Alert page and the Emergency Call Alert page of every onsite alert person in your system, removing the call you just acknowledged.

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Obtaining More Information About an Emergency Call

To respond to an emergency call, you might need more information than is displayed on the Emergency Call Alert page, or you might need to provide these details to law enforcement or other emergency personnel later (see the Viewing a History of Emergency Calls section.

You can immediately see details about an emergency call by clicking on that call record on the Emergency Call Alert page.

Which details are shown, such as the street address and the 3-digit area code, depends on how your system administrator has configured your system. These details are the same details that the PSAP operator sees.

While these details might not describe the exact physical location of the caller, they should describe the area from which the emergency call came. If you find that these details are not helpful in locating the emergency caller, talk to your system administrator.

Table 1-1 describes the fields you see when you click on a call record from the Emergency Call Alert page.

Table 1-1Emergency Response Location Fields

Field Name

Description

ERL Name

Zone name that your system administrator has set for that call’s location.

House Number

Number from the postal street address for the building (for example, the “170” in 170 West Tasman Dr.).

House Number Suffix

Number extension (such as /2) for the house number, if any.

Street Name

Street name from the postal address for the building.

Street Suffix

Type of street, such as AV for Avenue.

Prefix Directional

Leading directional indicator if the street name contains one, for example, N for North.

Post Directional

Trailing directional indicator if the street name contains one, for example, N for North.

Community Name

Community name for the address, for example, a city, town, or district name.

State

2-digit state abbreviation.

Main NPA

3-digit area code of the main number associated with the calling number.

Customer Name

Subscriber name associated with the ERL, typically, your company’s name.

Class of Service

Class of service for the ERL.

Type of Service

Type of service for the ERL.

Exchange

Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) exchange identifier for the serving telephone office for the phone.

Main Telephone No.

Main phone number associated with the ERL, such as the number of the security office for the ERL.

Order Number

Service order number of the activity of establishing or updating this record.

Extract Date

Date on which the record was created.

County ID

County identification code for the zone (in the USA, the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code assigned to the county by the U.S. Census Bureau).

Company ID

Your National Emergency Number Association (NENA)-registered company identification code.

Zip Code

Postal zip code for the address.

Zip Code Extension

Postal zip code “plus four” number.

Customer Code

Your customer code, which can be provided by your service provider if you do not know your code.

Comments

Optional comments, which might be displayed at the PSAP if an emergency call is placed from this ERL.

Longitude

Longitude of the ERL.

Latitude

Latitude of the ERL.

Elevation

Elevation of the ERL.

TAR Code

Taxing area rate code.

Location

Additional location information, in free form, to help identify the exact location of the phone.

For example, this information might repeat the street address that is defined in several separate fields elsewhere on this page.

Using Phone Search

If you need to see location details about a call after it is no longer visible on the Emergency Call Alert page, use the phone search to look up the extension. If you do not know the caller’s extension number, you can find it on the Call History page. For information about how to view a call history, see Viewing a History of Emergency Calls section.

To perform a phone search, follow these steps:

Procedure

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Step 1 Choose Phone Search from the main menu.

The Locate Phone by Extension page appears.

Step 2 In the Phone Extension field, enter the extension of the caller about whom you want more information and click Find.

Detailed information about the caller appears at the bottom of the screen.

Table 1-1 describes the fields you see when you look up a phone extension.

To return to the Emergency Call Alert page, choose Web Alert from the main menu.

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Note:

If an emergency call is placed immediately after the Cisco ER server is started, the caller’s location details might not be available right away. Results of a phone search using this caller’s extension will say “No matching phone for the given extension.”

A caller might place an emergency call from one Emergency Response Location (ERL) and then immediately move to a different ERL. If Cisco ER registers this move before you use the phone search feature, the phone search screen will display the location details of the caller’s second ERL.

If you try to view location details for a phone that shares an extension, the phone search screen displays details for all phones for that extension. To refine your search, click Select a phone to view details. Choose the phone whose details you want to view based on the Last Time of Emergency Call field.

Viewing a History of Emergency Calls

Cisco ER maintains history records for the 10,000 most recent emergency calls.

In some cases, you might need to provide recent call history information to law enforcement agencies or to other emergency personnel; this information might also be used for reporting purposes. For example, your company might need to determine whether it has enough security personnel (onsite alert personnel) to handle the average volume of emergency calls it receives over a given period of time.

By maintaining a history of emergency calls, you can view details about how many emergency calls were placed on a given date, from a given caller, or that contain a specific keyword that describes the call. You can also enter or view additional information about an emergency call, such as the nature of the emergency or what was done, by accessing the Comments field of a call record.

To view call history, follow these steps:

Procedure

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Step 1 Choose Call History from the main menu.

The Call History page appears.

Step 2 Use the drop-down lists and text field to enter specific call-search conditions. Click More to add conditions, or click Fewer to remove the last condition added.

Note:

If you specify more than one condition, make sure to select whether you want all or any of the conditions to be satisfied. For example, if you want to view all medical emergency calls that came from your company’s office in San Jose on July 6, your conditions might look like this:

Find Details of calls where all of the conditions are satisfied and where Date is 07/06/2003 and where ERL Name is Exactly SanJose Building and Comments contains medical.

Step 3 Click Find.

Information appears about those calls that meet the specified search conditions.

If there is more information than can fit on one screen, Cisco ER uses more than one page to list the calls.

To see more information, click the links or enter a specific page number in the Page field and click the Page link.

Step 4 To enter or modify comments about an emergency call, click the edit link in the Comments field for that call record. The Call Details page appears.

Comments appear in the Comments about the call field of the Call Details screen:

If the comment is longer than the field, use the right and left arrow keys on your computer keyboard to scroll though the comment.

To add or modify a comment, enter the information and click Update.

To return a comment to its last saved value, click Reset.

Step 5 Click Close to close the Call Details page.

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Table 1-2 describes the fields you see when you view a history of emergency calls.

Table 1-2Call History Fields

Field Name

Description

ERL Name

Zone name that your system administrator has set for that call’s location.

Field that contains an edit link that allows you to enter comments about the call. See Step 4for details on entering comments.

Phone Location

The location of the phone based on whether the phone was configured manually, or whether it was configured based on the switch port or IP subnet.

Call Acknowledged

The acknowledged status of a call on the Web Alert page.

Note:

Cisco ER maintains history records for the 10,000 most recent emergency calls. If you need to obtain call details for earlier emergency calls, ask your system administrator to provide this information. Your system administrator may have saved these records.

Using Accessibility Features

Cisco Emergency Responder provides functionality for users that allows them to access buttons on the window without using a mouse. These navigation shortcuts assist visually impaired or blind attendants to use the application.

Use Table 1-3 as a guide for navigating the interface by using keyboard shortcuts.

Table 1-3Navigation Shortcuts For Cisco Emergency Responder

Keystroke

Action

Alt

Moves focus to the browser menu bar.

Enter

Chooses the item with focus (menu option, button, and so on.)

Alt, arrow keys

Moves between browser menus.

Spacebar

Toggles control; for example, checks and unchecks a check box.

Tab

Moves focus to the next item in the tab order or to next control group.

Shift+Tab

Moves focus to the previous item or group in the tab order.

Arrow keys

Moves among controls within a group.

Home

Moves to the top of the window if more than one screenful of information exists. Also, moves to the beginning of a line of user-entered text.

End

Moves to the end of a line of user-entered text.
Moves to the bottom of the window if more than one screenful of information exists.